


hollow

by yououui



Category: Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Love, Love Confessions, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:00:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24067759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yououui/pseuds/yououui
Summary: Aerith knows the sacrifice that she must make to save the world from Sephiroth, but Cloud resolves to never let her go.Had I realized, had I thought it throughWould you be here, in my embrace?This time for sureI'll see the truth hidden inside your tears
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough & Cloud Strife, Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife
Comments: 10
Kudos: 187
Collections: clerith fanfics





	hollow

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on an idea shared by Pocci that I felt an immediate urge to write, mixed with some elements from the song Hollow! I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Set vaguely after the Midgar section of FF7R.

Aerith steps silently around the room. She can’t be caught—she can’t let herself be stopped. What she has to do is not what the others want, but sometimes, need outweighs that. At least, that’s what she tells herself. Either way, it forces her to sneak out in the dead of night, when no one can stop her.

She kneels beside Tifa, who is sleeping soundly with no idea of what is happening just beside her. Aerith reaches her hand out, but stops short of touching Tifa’s cheek in fear of waking her. She smiles as she looks down at her sleeping friend’s face, relaxed and free of the stresses that trouble her daily.

“It’s not goodbye,” Aerith whispers, her voice just a breath. “I hope you remember that I’ll always be with you all.”

Aerith gives herself the luxury of staying in that spot for a few moments longer, but reluctantly stands. She tiptoes out of their shared room and shuts the door behind her as quietly as she can. She waits a moment, but she doesn’t hear Tifa stir from inside the room. It takes her a minute to let go of the doorknob, to step back from this life she’s created, but she does so eventually.

She takes the two steps to the next door, the one that the boys are sharing. She reaches out to the doorknob to step into the room, but stops herself. Her hand trembles where it hovers just over the doorknob and she feels that, despite what she is planning, it’s here in _this_ moment that she is standing on the precipice between life and death, and if she opens the door, she’ll fall the wrong way.

She curls her fingers into a fist and pulls her hand back from the door to hold against her chest instead. She wants to open the door, she wants to see him one last time, but…

But she knows that if she sees his face, she will lose all determination she’s managed to build up. She will turn her back on what she must do for the good of the world just for her own selfish desire to be with him.

She swallows down the sorrow building in her chest and forces a shaky smile. “I’m sorry, Cloud,” She whispers to the door. “I know this isn’t what you wanted, but… But I hope you listened to what I said. I hope you won’t suffer too much.”

She whispers her farewells to Barret and Red XIII. Maybe, when she’s part of the Lifestream, she will be able to visit them, to be able to see them off properly. That’s what she hopes, anyway.

With a shaky breath, Aerith forces herself to step back from the door. She takes a few steps, then stops to take one fleeting look back. “We’ll see each other again,” She whispers. “When this is all over. Until then, I hope you can be happy. Everything... will be alright.”

Then, she ignores her heart’s wishes and walks away from the doors. She walks quietly down the stairs of the inn, past the innkeeper sleeping at the desk, out the door. There’s a heaviness in the warm night, grey clouds hanging low overhead. She had wished she could have seen the stars, but… There is something oddly therapeutic about the clouds. Something that tells her she isn’t alone.

She walks slowly through the empty village, allows herself to look around and enjoy the stillness of the night. If it is to be her last night on the Planet before she becomes part of it, she thinks she should at least be allowed the selfish desire of enjoying it one last time.

She feels something drip on the top of her head. She looks up at the sky, and another drop hits her cheek, slips down to drip off of her chin. And then she’s standing in the midst of a cool summer rain, drenched before she can do anything about it.

She laughs despite herself and holds her hands up to the sky. It’s odd… She had always hated the sky. She had grown used to it during their travels, but there was still a part of her that feared it so. And the rain… The rain hitting her skin always felt like a reminder to her that she no longer had the steel sky to protect her from the sorrows the endless sky could bring.

Now though, she relishes in it, and thinks that she will miss the feeling of rain on her skin once she is gone. There’s a lightness to it, a feeling of comfort in the midst of her dread, like the sky is crying in her place.

She sighs after a few moments. She cannot stay, and she knows the longer she waits, the harder it will be to go, so she forces her feet to move forward. She’s not paying much attention to what’s in front of her, instead looking up at the sky, at the outline of the nearby mountain against the clouds, at the muddy earth under her feet. She is called to attention when she hears footsteps ahead of her, and is stopped in her tracks.

Standing in front of her, in front of the entrance to the village, is Cloud.

She is called back to the night after they met, when she intercepted him before he could sneak away, but this time is different. He’s looking at her with an expression she can’t read, hard eyes and a clenched jaw. His arms are crossed over his chest and his stance is wide, like he’s readying himself for a coming battle. Rain drips from his hair and over his face, rolls off the pauldron on his shoulder and soaks his clothes.

“C-Cloud,” Aerith gasps. She looks away from him, suddenly guilty. “...What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Cloud says as he steps closer to her.

Aerith swallows and takes a deep breath to steady herself. “I was just... taking a walk,” She tells him.

“In the middle of the night?” Cloud asks. His eyes narrow as he regards her. “In the pouring rain?”

“I-It wasn’t raining when I came out,” Aerith feels like she is unraveling under his gaze. They stand in silence for a long moment, with Cloud simply looking at her and Aerith avoiding looking back.

Then, so quietly it almost gets drowned by the rain, Cloud asks, “What are you _doing,_ Aerith?”

Shocked by the tenderness of his voice, Aerith lifts her eyes to look at him. She can tell he is trying to keep his face strong, but his eyes have softened, and his lips are pressed in a hard line like he is trying to hold something back. Aerith feels her heart break in her chest at the sight, feels an urge to return to him and assure him that she isn’t going anywhere, just to wipe that look away.

But she can’t. “I’m doing what I must,” She tells him shakily.

Cloud’s eyes snap away from her, point to somewhere on the ground as he works through his thoughts. She catches his lip trembling, can see him grit his teeth together and then he looks back at her with renewed vigor. “Aerith,” He says to her. “You can’t do this.”

Aerith shakes her head. “I have to.”

“No, you don’t!” Cloud takes a step closer to her, his voice rising.

Aerith feels her resolve tremble and crack at the edges. She clenches her hands into fists and bites her nails into her palms. “I’m the only one that can stop him, Cloud!”

“So that means you have to _die?!_ ” Cloud yells.

Aerith’s eyes go wide and her mouth drops open on a quiet gasp. There is something different about hearing Cloud say the words, a feeling like gravity itself is weighing on her shoulders, threatening to pull her down into the darkness below.

Cloud’s fists shake at his sides. He swallows and lowers his head, so his face is hidden from Aerith’s view. His shoulders tremble with each breath he takes.

“You’re making this decision on your own… But what about us?” Cloud asks in a quiet, somber voice. He takes another shuddering breath. “What are we supposed to do? What about _my_ pain?!”

He lifts his head to look at her again and presses a hand to his chest, and Aerith sees a wetness shining in his eyes that was not there before. In that single moment, her resolve shatters like fragile glass. She feels something hot slip down her cheeks, mixing with the rain, but she doesn’t realize she is crying until a sob bubbles up in her chest.

Aerith covers her mouth with her hand to try and stifle it. Her eyes burn as she looks at Cloud, looks into those lustrous eyes that are shining with sadness, silently pleading with her. She shakes her head. 

“I told you…” She hiccups another sob and bows her head, her hands trembling. “This is why I told you... not to fall in love with me.”

“Too late for that,” Cloud murmurs quietly, and Aerith sobs again.

Cloud closes the distance between them, so near Aerith can feel the warmth of him. He puts a hand on her cheek and lifts her head so she is looking up at him again. “We fought our destiny, didn’t we?” He asks. He wipes his thumb along her cheek, looks into her eyes like he can see something hidden within her tears that even she is not aware of. In his own eyes, the sadness still lingers, but there is a new fire, like he picked up Aerith’s broken resolve and pieced it back together for himself, and with that same fervor in his voice he says, “This time, I’m never letting you go.”

She is standing again on the precipice between life and death and she feels herself slip. She’s falling, but it isn’t life or death that greets her. Instead, it’s Cloud’s open arms.

Something swells in Aerith’s chest that she can’t keep down. Her eyes burn with new tears and then she is crying, _wailing_ with her head against Cloud’s chest. She grabs onto his suspenders, an anchor that keeps her on the ground with him, and buries her face into the wet fabric of his shirt as her shoulders shake with sobs and cries.

Cloud wraps his arms around her and holds her close to him. He bows his head over the top of her own, tucks her in close and takes all of the anguish she can finally release. The rain falls down her cheeks, obscuring her tears and carrying away the cries of suffering. She cries and cries and _cries_ , and with each raindrop that hits her skin and tear that falls from her eyes, feels something within her lighten, like the sky itself is lifting away her pain.

And Cloud, Cloud holds her tight to him through it all. He squeezes her trembling shoulders, strokes a hand over her wet hair, reminds her that she isn’t alone. 

She sucks in a sharp breath when the sobs have mostly subsided. “I… I don’t want to die,” She admits, whispers to the Planet, the sky, to Cloud.

“You don’t have to,” Cloud tells her, and she feels his arms tighten around her. “We can find another way. _Together.”_

Aerith’s shoulders jump with one last sob. She swallows down the rest and lets go of Cloud’s suspenders to instead lay her hands flat against his chest, feeling the rhythm of his heartbeat and breath. She finally pulls back just enough to look at him and what fills her chest to the point of bubbling over this time is not sadness or regret, but instead insurmountable love and thanks for the man standing before her. He looks at her with a determination overlaid with softness, with love, for _her_. Aerith knows that without him by her side, she would be hollow, empty, and knows that he feels the same way.

He puts his hand against her cheek again. “Cloud, I…” She begins shakily. “I love—”

He cuts her off by pulling her closer into his embrace and pressing his lips against hers. She lets out a pained noise, the last of her agony leaving her heart as she holds his face in her hands and kisses him back. The rain pours over his cheeks, her fingers, their lips, connects their entire bodies as they hold each other close and just feel each other.

She pulls back and looks up at him. “Cloud, I’m sorry!” She cries over the growing noise of the rain. “I-I shouldn’t have—I only wanted to—!”

“Aerith,” Cloud says in a tone Aerith has never heard before, one full of endearment, patience, and love. “You don’t have to apologize. Never.”

“B-But I—” Aerith is cut off once again with a short, soft kiss.

“Things will be different this time,” Cloud whispers against her lips.

Aerith nods and this time, she kisses him. That hollowness she felt creeping inside of her, it’s filled completely by him. His love, his sadness, his attitude, his concern, everything that he is takes up every empty space in her heart and makes her feel whole.

When they pull apart, it’s with a shaky breath from Cloud. He slowly opens his eyes to look down at her, and then offers her the smallest of smiles. “We should go back,” He says quietly. “Before you get sick.”

Aerith smiles at him. It’s delicate around the edges, but it’s certain; no longer was she only smiling for his sake or even for her own, but instead because she couldn’t hold in the overwhelming feelings spilling from her heart.

“Okay,” She whispers.

Cloud nods, but instead of letting her go, he keeps her in his embrace and offers her one more kiss. She smiles against his lips and holds him just as tight, and they stay like that until a chill runs down her spine.

“Let’s go for real,” Cloud says as he reluctantly pulls away from her.

She nods and steps back from his embrace, but he doesn’t let her go far. He takes tight hold of her hand, and the two of them return back to the inn and their friends, together.

The rain lessens as they walk, until it has stopped almost entirely by the time they return to the inn. Aerith gives the sky one last look before stepping inside, sees one star shine as the clouds move on, and reminds herself that she isn't alone. She was _never_ alone.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! come scream about how much you love them with me
> 
> [twitter](https://www.twitter.com/yououuii)  
> [tumblr](https://yououui.tumblr.com)


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